It's so frustrating to see the ball get "stuck" so much with this team. Guys like Pavs and sometimes Simmons can score effectively enough that it glosses over the ball not moving. How many times do we see guys on this team (mainly Pavs, Simmons, and Hadaway) dribble the ball to death, go 1v1, and force a contested shot? This happened a lot against Toledo, and that first 12-14 minutes of the 1st half when Simmons and Pavs weren't making shots was where the game was lost. A bad defensive team can't afford to fall behind by 20+ points and expect to come back. It was a minor miracle we made it as close as we did late.
After researching I was actually shocked to learn that Boals' teams on average score more than Saul Phillips' teams did. Say what you want about Saul's coaching prowess, but at least on the offensive end it felt like there was some type of gameplan. They actually ran set plays. There were definitely times it bogged down, but at least they knew what they were doing. I'd argue that Saul's biggest problem (other than recruiting whiffs) was being so stubborn in playing strictly man-to-man defense and never switching it up to keep the opposition honest.
These Boals teams are so hard to watch and largely have been smoke and mirrors offensively during the beginning part of his tenure because of great PG play behind Preston and Sears, then to a lesser degree with Hunter and Paveletzke. Ben Vander Plas being as versatile as he was both inside and out glossed over a lot of inefficiencies as well. We saw it come to a grinding halt with AJ Clayton almost refusing to play in the paint as a big man. Simmons and Hadaway should be a lethal in/out combo, or at the very least, play some HI/LOW which is absolutely unheard of in this day and age. Hard to do that though when the gameplan seems to be "get good players open shots" but with the faintest idea on how to do it other than go 1v1.
Last Edited: 3/2/2026 1:54:32 PM by GoCats105